Kitchens are one of the most important rooms when determining the selling price of a home. That’s because they’re the most expensive and time-consuming to renovate.
Put a home on the real estate market with an ugly kitchen like the one seen here, and you can expect lower offers and that it will take much longer to sell. How far you go with kitchen home staging will depend on 4 factors:
1. Budget available. Remember staging is an investment in getting maximum return from the real estate sale.
2. Price point of the home. It’s always a good idea to look at the competition in the area in that price range.
3. Time available for home staging. Many kitchen home staging projects can be completed in a few days.
4. How fast the home needs to sell. The longer a home sits on the market, the more it costs the home sellers in carrying the property Plus, eventually they’ll have to lower the price to get buyer’s attention. Price reductions generally cost more than staging.
In the kitchen, home staging is key for the successful sale of a home. You don’t want potential buyers thinking, “We’ll have to rip out this kitchen. That’s so expensive and a huge inconvenience that will take months to finish!”
Kitchen Home Staging Boosts Selling Price
Many potential buyers won’t even put in an offer to purchase if they think they have to undergo an expensive and time-consuming renovation. Other potential buyers will take this as an opportunity to “low-ball” their offer— knocking at least $50,000 to $70,000 off what they’re prepared to offer on an average home.
My favorite kitchen home staging project this month comes from Staging Diva Graduate Jodi Whalen of Pear Tree Home Designs, LLC. Compared to a price reduction of $50,000 or $70,000, look what she achieved in this kitchen by:
- Painting the ugly cabinets — much cheaper and faster than replacing them.
- Adding decorative trim to hide the bulk head — providing an upscale, custom finish.
- Replacing the counter top, appliances and backsplash — maximum wow factor but not that costly in a small kitchen.
- Adding decorative items to finish the upscale look.
This is now a wonderful kitchen that will be in style for many years ahead.
The proof home staging works is in the results. Here’s what Jodi reports about this home staging project:
“Pear Tree Home Designs recently staged a large 4-bedroom tudor style home from top to bottom, the homeowners had not touched a thing since the day they moved in. The home needed fresh paint throughout the house, an updated kitchen and each room needed a breath of fresh air.”
“I hired paint contractors, handyman contractors, a cleaning crew and the home owner did a lot of purging, in the end the home had an entirely different feel. It was on the market for 3.5 weeks and sold for 95% of it’s asking price. Competitive homes in the area were sitting for a minimum of 6-9 months!”
“I am thrilled to be a Staging Diva Graduate and I love that I can help people sell the most expensive asset they own so they can move onto the next phase in their life.”
A big congratulations to Jodi Whalen on this fabulous kitchen transformation and everything else she did for her home staging client! I thank her for sharing these before and after photos, giving us many home staging ideas for what’s possible in a kitchen.
Please add your comments below and feel free to share this story to show your own home staging clients what is possible with your help! Plus, if you’d like to see your latest project or home staging business featured in an upcoming article, please share your staging story here.
Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould is President of Six Elements Home Staging and creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Debra is the author of the best-selling Staging Diva Ultimate Design Guide and has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate in 4 cities.
Debra,
Jodi’s before kitchen is so typical in many homes, especially those where the tenants have just “lived” in the home for many years. The updates she implemented are each very impactful yet somewhat low cost when considering a total gut job or a lost buyer. The total package calms fears of deferred maintenance. Most will see this kitchen as doable. If they have bigger dreams, they’ll likely find this space workable and not a deal breaker. This is such a perfect example for owners that it is important to drag spaces into current market expectation. Congratulations Jodi and thanks for sharing, ladies.
Appreciate your comments Karla and totally agree with you!
Hey, a tip — Did you know that you can quickly set up a free Gravatar so your photo appears with your comments? I’ve written an article with a short video about how to do it.
Once you set it up, the photo you use will even be added to comments you’ve already made all over the Internet, how cool is that?
Easy, peasy…..my gravatar is set up. One more crumpled sticky note tossed! Debra, you continue to push me forward….thanks!
That looks so great Karla, congratulations on taking action! I also really appreciate you stopping back to comment!
I read this in the morning just before I was going to stage a home and purposely left the dining table with only the centerpiece and vase w/flowers instead of laying the plates, etc that I purchased the other day for this home. I thought it would be nice to add some color to the dining area by having it set with place mats, dinner plate and matching bowl, however I wasn’t going to add any napkins, napkin rings, glassware, forks,etc due to limited time. But I also didn’t want to be that stager with the inexpensive settings. I never lay out cutlery either because I don’t trust the little kids that may play with it or take it home. After looking at the final staging, it looks nice without the setting but now I have to decide whether to take it back to the store for a refund or purchase the rest of the items missing so that I can use it for another staging. Decisions, decisions.
Thanks for commenting Lilly. I’ve done hundreds of homes and only set a table on two occasions. Mostly I think it’s an unnecessary distraction and that it rarely helps sell a house.
Awesome job Jodi! And what a creative way to incorporate the soffit into the design. Lots of great ideas here, along with more proof that home staging works!
Jodi,
Your kitchen makeover is a perfect example of how valuable home stagers are to home sellers who don’t have a sense of what minor upgrades and expert home staging can do to sell their residential property. I’m almost certain that your seller was thrilled with what you did and even more flabbergasted when what you did helped sell that house in 3.5 weeks! Isn’t it a grand feeling to know, to do and to see that what you instinctively know helps people sell their homes – it really makes the difference?! Congratulations! Great job!
Thanks for commenting Stacy! Totally agree!
Jodi,
As an afterthought to my earlier post I thought it would be fun to share that I was interviewed (again!) by Alaska Home; a quarterly magazine publication. The article was about affordable upgrades that home sellers can make to help sell their properties. See it here: http://www.alaskahomemag.com/_pages/articles/resale_redos.html. Maybe you have a similar publication in your area that will scoop up your makeover photos and write an article to promote home staging and showcase your home staging business?
Congratulations Stacy, that’s a great article! Don’t forget to post about it on my Staging Diva Facebook wall at: http://www.facebook.com/TheStagingDiva It would be a great entry into the Staging Diva Stages Of Success Contest!
What this article does not mention is how much Jodi charged for this kitchen reno ( as the stager and how much that it cost the seller. I agree that it looks fabulous. My experience is that it is difficult to convince sellers to put a large chunk of money into a house they are not staying in. These buyers can take the fridge, though.
Janet, thanks for commenting. As I said in the story, there are 4 factors to determine how far you go/how much to spend in staging. Jodi made only very cosmetic changes here so that a potential buyer would no longer feel like they needed to rip out the kitchen and redo it — which could easily make the house harder to sell quickly and lower the offer price significantly.
Instead, the buyers sold in 3 weeks (up to 8 months sooner than would have been expected at that time/location) and for 95% of the asking price.
I agree with you that people are loathe to spend money on a house they’re selling, that’s where we as home stagers have to build an intelligent argument to explain why and demonstrate that they’re not “spending money on a house they’re selling” but instead “investing in getting a higher return.”
Thanks for commenting and sharing your experience.